A Taste Of The Georgia-South Carolina Sea Islands

 

With the warming temperatures of Spring it's time to think about those gatherings with family and fiends and the foods that go with them. Here's a favorite at our house.

Moon River saltmarsh, Savannah, GA

Fish and seafood boils are popular foodways in many parts of the country. The regional variations are as striking and numerous as the definitions of the regions and subregions themselves. In the lower Chesapeake Bay area, where I lived from the age of nine into early adulthood, we had a variety of seafoods including oysters on the half shell and fried, as well as clams and assorted fish. The signature of the Bay table was the blue crab, often enjoyed at "crab feasts," be they a gathering of five or five hundred. Preparation was easy: a steamer, blue crabs, apple cider vinegar, and plenty of Old Bay seasoning. Haven't attended a crab feast in the Bay area in more than forty years but the wonderful aroma remains fresh in my memory.

It wasn't until the late 1970s that I attended my first seafood dinner in the Lowcountry or Sea Islands of the South Carolina-Georgia coast. There's no doubt this dish had its origins in the Gullah-Geechee culture among the residents of African descent who have occupied these islands for generations. That said, it took an innovative cook, a large event, and limited funds to create what became the iconic seafood dinner - first known as  Frogmore Stew - on the Sea Island coast. Read the interesting story here. 

So cast your net for shrimp and crabs, gather corn and potatoes, slice some sausage, throw in a few onions, seasonings and your favorite options, and dinner is ready in about an hour. Not only is dinner quick, you can clean the table in a flash because the food is dumped in the middle of a table lined with plastic trash bags and covered in newspapers. No need for plates or utensils either. When everyone is through, just roll up the debris and dump it in an outside trash can.

Lots of Lowcountry folks use propane cook pots so they can make a big batch of boil outside in the garden, a picnic park or at the beach. We're satisfied using a four-gallon pot on the stove for up to about eight servings unless you add extra shellfish as we often do. If you want to take a journey to the Sea Islands without leaving home, here's what you need:

To prepare four servings:

Dump the following ingredients into two gallons of water:

1/3 cup of Old Bay

Six cloves of garlic, minced

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

One or two shake Tabasco sauce

One lemon, halved, then squeezed over the pot and dropped in


Bring the pot to a boil and add the following:

One pound Kielbasa sausage, quartered

Twelve medium red potatoes

One Vidalia (sweet) onion


After ten minutes, add:

Four ears sweet corn, halved

Four blue crabs


After eight minutes, add

Two dozen mussels

Two dozen cherrystone clams

2 1/2 pounds uncooked shrimp

Give the pot a good stir

DO NOT OVERCOOK!  When the shells open and the shrimp is pink -  should be no more than four minutes - drain the pot and scatter the contents on the table while your guests gasp in awe of your talents.

Lowcountry boil pairs nicely with beer. Fresh-brewed ice tea works as well, but it's a distant second. Cole slaw makes for the perfect side. Warm French bread spread with garlic butter - real garlic, real butter - adds a nice complement to the seafood. Around our house, we accompany the feast with the music of Savannah's favorite son, Johnny Mercer. This bit of Mercer magic evokes images of his childhood spent at the family's summer home at Vernon View, about ten miles south of Savannah.

I'd write more but I'm hungry!